The first to speak. And the last to speak.
Timing. In sales and negotiation dynamics, it’s all about who has the more power —there’s always one who wants it more. When to be the first to speak? In my experience, talking money early (no, not the first thing that bursts out of your mouth as “What’s your budget?”) gives you an advantage. It enables you to: Be comfortable talking money. Anchor high. Lead the conversation with your rules. If it’s your prospect the one who talks money first, they’ll be in more control of the conversation….
PSA on innovation
Jobs To Be Done is a theory with 2 approaches. They both center on how to find the thing that makes customers tick. This, based on markets and needs. One of them (by Tony Ulwick) has this assessment tool: https://strategyn.com/innovation-assessment You might want to give it a try. 🙂
Time and Change
You’re about to get into shifting the way you do work for a better way. That’s what you think. That’s the goal. But, what’s “better”? It’s too abstract. Too fuzzy. Too hard to be on the same scale for everyone —you, your team (if you have one), your customers. A simple way to know and quantify this: Make 3 columns. Past. Present. Future. Choose one aspect that you need to do “better”. Write it down. What it’s been in the past. What it’s now. What you want it to be in the future. This will…
Hard is simple.
Hard conversations can be simple. They are, actually. Though they feel hard because you’re invested into it. You have consequences you’d rather not dealing with. Yet —in the vast majority of cases— they’re simple. And here’s the thing: you already know in your gut which way to go. Trust. Your. Gut.
No bulletproof way
If you’re trying to create advantage, you’ll need to embrace risk. There’s no bulletproof way to surprise.
Intelligent?
Just seen today at a trade show: “Intelligent Solutions” Does this mean the competitors are either dumb and/or problematic?
More for less
From yesterday’s message, lots of readers replied with “I’d choose to sell less units for more $”. That’s awesome. 🙂 However, you’d be surprised with how many business owners go with “More (units) for less (price)”. They’re not wrong. It makes sense from an intuitive POV —and from what we have always been taught (from uni to bros): “It’s all about growth. It’s all about reach.” The missing detail: to get that kind of reach, you need bigger pockets. And more time. So, if you’re not one of the…
The easier way
If you want to improve your sales, would you go for selling more units*, selling more units for a lower price each, or selling the same units for more? selling less units for more? *Unit: any offering you quantify. ie. A consultancy, a workshop, a product, a service, a productized service…
Measurement and metrics
While we use interchangeably measurement and metric, there is a different between both of them. A measurement is the reading of something—the figure. A metric, is that same measurement, applied by judgement / criteria. USD 100K is a measurement. It just counts the money: 100 000. A metric would be if it’s above, on, or below an arbitrary point. If your costs are 200K, this metric of 100K would be bad. If your costs are 10K, then it would be good. 🙂
The paradox of choice
The more options they have to choose from, the better decision they’ll make. Not really… The more there is, the more analysis to do. The more trade-offs to evaluate. The more ways of finding the one that fits better at all of the features. And here comes your friend, Analysis Paralysis. Went to buy a stuffed animal with my 5-yo. The quantity of them to choose from? Overwhelming. Big. Small. Medium. Light. Heavy. Birds. Mammals. Reptiles. Monsters. Fantasy. Puppets. Dolls. Asking “Which one…
